Packs/Bags

P1G-TAC is an Ukraine based company and it is always great to see how other tactical communities do things. This particular Grab Bag has some interesting features not usually seen on this bag type, however the specifics may divide many on if they love it or could do without.

Fanny Packs seem to be making a come back despite getting a bad rep from the 90s and nice to see some CCW variants these days. Although easy to get arrogant on thinking the US is always making the best nylon kit, I find it good to keep an eye out for other countries making modern tactical gear.

As expected First Tactical is doing a good job filling out their tactical product line including some nice packs and bags. To get a starting taste of their design style I got a chance to try out the Tactix 1-day Plus Backpack and was certainly pleasantly surprised.

The Dragon Egg is the first item I've gotten to check out from Direct Action and it is nice to see an ally country also making good kit with modern features. Direct Action started out in Poland, but now has distribution in the USA making it easier for us to get.

Being around a 25+ liter sized pack, most would call the Dragon Egg a medium size pack at around the 2 day loadout zone. This makes it a pretty versatile size fitting the needs of tactical folks and EDC crowd alike. Out of the box the pack comes in a bonus Direct Action bag that resembles a reusable grocery bag these days. The main pack material being 500D Cordura and how it is constructed gives a good durable first impression feel. As the egg name implies, the pack has a lot of gradual curves to the shape which helps with smooth zipper functionality and how items fit on the inside.

Commonly toiletry bags are budget style made so it is nice to see this heavy duty one from Maxpedition. Now I'll admit the name is somewhat amusing as Aftermath somewhat implies you would be carrying something more along the lines of a set of microwave burritos and toilet paper (which it could happily hold), additionally it isn't particularly compact. The silly thoughts aside, it is nice to be able to count on a good bag to clean up with when you get done with a long day in a crap environment.

As a part of Maxpedition's new products this year they wanted to provide some visually lower profile designs with the Spatha and Testudo Laptop bag designs being good examples. The hard use functionality is all still there, with I'd say the main differences being less exterior pockets and a good color selection to offer more civilian looking options. The only feature that looks a bit specifically tactical is the external loop velcro which can easily be taken off for those who desire to. I'm showing the Spatha and Testudo together as they are very similar in core layout with the Testudo being slightly larger and having optional backpack functionality.

As usual I'm catching up on reviews so the Hazard4 Kato isn't new to the market, but as a result I've given it a solid 1 year beating and the design is still certainly relevant as a modern gear bag. Based on the smaller Tonto, the Kato is a slightly larger size meant to be a great mini messenger bag to hold EDC type gear along with ipads, similar tablets, netbooks, and small laptops.

Keeping the pack party going with Warrior Assault Systems is the Predator pack. It may seem familiar as it was the original big boy pack that inspired the smaller Pegasus. Being almost double in size, it holds approx 2500 cu-in / 42 liters which is a slim 3-day pack size class. I sneak "slim" in there as 2800 cu-in appears to be the common 3-day size so the Predator dropped a little mass with the balance of offering more modularity. Since made to hold substantial weight, fortunately a nicely padded hip belt is included by default which is a must for heavy long hauls. There is quite a bit of Pegasus functionality sharing so I'm going to rock some copy/paste action, however you will also see the larger size of the Predator offers new features as well.

Starting with a wave of goods from Warrior Assault Systems is this nice assault sized pack, the Pegasus. Coming in at around 1400 cu-in / 23 liters carrying capacity, it is a good medium size, likely considered a 1.5-day pack by most. When really stuffed it can get a bit cube-like in shape, however overall a good size to not get in the way of core body movement. Design wise there isn't really anything revolutionary or new about the Pegasus, but all the chosen worthwhile features and build quality makes it shine as a whole.

This year 5.11 has definitely picked up their game on their tactical gear line with this "All Hazards Prime" pack being a great example. Prime is about one word longer than I'd say, but perhaps it is their way of saying Rush 24 super turbo champion edition. Joking aside, everything I saw from 5.11 at shotshow displayed considerable design refinements which is a great sign that 5.11 is making a true modern gear effort and not a half assed one. The All Hazards pack is certainly feature rich so get ready for a long ride on my attempt to break it all down.

Using the same concepts from the Jumbo KISS, it was pretty much a no brainer to apply them to the Fatboy, the result being this GTG (Good To Go) variant. I would have just stuck with the KISS name variant, but I suppose it helps makes a distinction between the Jumbo and Fatboy. Anyway, the main idea appears to be get costs down while still keeping the core functionality of the bag intact, which I think it does well. Generally small details are taken off such extra webbing and dividers to achieve this while keeping the same overall size and layout. These changes along with using 800D as the core material achieved approximately a 25% weight reduction. The 800D is slightly more flexible compared to the usual 1000D Maxpedition uses, however is still plenty strong to achieve long term durability.

Based on the old Typhoon Gearslinger, which was based on a single strap design, it appears the design has been resurrected in backpack (2 strap) form. Since this size class is fairly taken care of by the Sitka and Noatak I can understand the concept to make it more like a traditional backpack to offer more small backpack options to Maxpedition's line. I suppose the Pygmy Falcon-II is the only other design that comes close currently.

MAXPEDITION Traveler ID CarrierMonday, 12 November 2007 DIM: 7" L x 5.5" W The Traveler is a full fledge ID carrier that works as an organizer as well. The frontal ID area can accommodate a large ID or 2... Read More...

A Real Urban Grey?Sunday, 05 April 2015 A problem I have come across lately is that we use warm greys in our patches and when doing this for custom work we sometimes get the not so happy... Read More...